My Newborn Had Mouth Ties - Part One

Hello everyone! I have been away for awhile because I have been just a bit distracted since having my baby girl. She is now 13 weeks old and this mama is loving every minute! 

But things definitely were not easy when she was first born. I had planned to breast feed, and the first feeding at the hospital went extremely well! Bella Grace ate 20 minutes on each side and it was amazing! After that feeding, things didn’t always go so well.

We had some frustrating times at the hospital trying to get her to latch, but people just kept telling me it was because me and baby were both new at this and that it would take some time. She was 8 lbs 2 oz at birth. Fast forward to her first appointment at 1 week old, and she was down to 7 lbs 6 oz. Bella Grace had lost almost a pound since birth. I wasn’t particularly worried about her weight, but I was exhausted. She was eating almost every hour, and it would take her 1-1 1/2 hours each time she ate. And even then sometimes she would still scream and cry and stop latching on. It was so frustrating and I almost quit trying and went to formula. 

After we came home from the hospital, a friend from my church asked me how nursing was going. As I was telling her the problems we were having, she kept mentioning that maybe my baby had a tongue tie. I doubted at first, but I was willing to look into it. Before she was 2 weeks old, I went to a lactation consultant to see if maybe she thought Bella Grace had a tongue tie. When we got there, the first thing she did was weigh her. Then Bella nursed for AN HOUR and we weighed her again. Out of that whole hour, she literally only drank about an ounce of milk. No wonder my baby girl would scream, she was barely getting any food! No wonder she was taking more than an hour to eat! No wonder she was losing weight! After that I knew something wasn’t right. 

The lactation consultant told us that there were 2 pediatric dentists that could perform the procedure if she did have a tongue tie; there was one in a town near mine and then there was one near Birmingham. The dentist near Birmingham was the #1 in the state when it came to this procedure, so we decided to go see him. (Thankfully I have an aunt and uncle that live just down the road from his office, so we were able to stay with them for the night instead of making the trip all in one day!) 

I scheduled an appointment as soon as I could; Bella was 2 weeks and 1 day old. We got there and Dr. Baxter took a look at her mouth. Turns out Bella Grace had a tongue tie, lip tie, and both of her cheeks were tied!